I was paying bills tonight when this message appeared in my inbox:
February 19, 2007
To: SIRIUS Subscribers
Today is a very exciting day for SIRIUS customers. As you may have heard, SIRIUS Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio are merging to form the nation’s premier audio entertainment provider.
I’m pretty excited about this if they can pull it off. I was first thinking this might compare to the VHS vs Betamax war, but this is more of a content battle like you’d expect from two broadcast networks.
Having two incompatible satellite radio providers was a pain in this case simply because listeners had to worry about making the wrong choice (“who will go bankrupt first?”). If the hardware was compatible and we were just dealing with different subscriptions, I’d be all for the competition.
Assuming they can get over regulatory hurdles, I do think they’ll see subscriber growth (assuming they don’t jack up their rates after merging).
